/*
 *   This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 *   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 *   the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 *   (at your option) any later version.
 *
 *   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 *   GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 *   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 *   along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */

/*
 *    AssociationRulesProducer.java
 *    Copyright (C) 2010-2012 University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
 *
 */

package weka.associations;

/**
 * Interface to something that can provide a list of AssociationRules.
 * 
 * @author Mark Hall (mhall{[at]}pentaho{[dot]}com)
 * @version $Revision$
 */
public interface AssociationRulesProducer {

    /**
     * Gets the list of mined association rules.
     * 
     * @return the list of association rules discovered during mining. Returns null
     *         if mining hasn't been performed yet.
     */
    AssociationRules getAssociationRules();

    /**
     * Gets a list of the names of the metrics output for each rule. This list
     * should be the same (in terms of the names and order thereof) as that produced
     * by AssociationRule.getMetricNamesForRule().
     * 
     * @return an array of the names of the metrics available for each rule learned
     *         by this producer.
     */
    String[] getRuleMetricNames();

    /**
     * Returns true if this AssociationRulesProducer can actually produce rules.
     * Most implementing classes will always return true from this method (obviously
     * :-)). However, an implementing class that actually acts as a wrapper around
     * things that may or may not implement AssociationRulesProducer will want to
     * return false if the thing they wrap can't produce rules.
     * 
     * @return true if this producer can produce rules in its current configuration
     */
    boolean canProduceRules();
}
